Nonna Rosaria's Italian Kitchen

Sound familiar?

You followed the recipe. It still came out wrong.

The ground beef turns gray and sits boiling in a puddle instead of browning.

The meatballs bounce on the fork. Hard outside, dry inside.

The lasagna slides apart on the plate in a pool of water.

The eggplant drinks the whole bottle of oil and still comes out soggy.

The sauce from the jar tastes like tomato soup, and you know it is not what she made.

The person who knew how is gone, and nobody ever wrote it down.

It was never your fault. Nobody ever told you why.This book does.

Rosaria Fiore at her kitchen table in Calabria — Rosaria Fiore, at her mother's table in Calabria

The telephone from America

My mother never measured. So my granddaughter measured me.

I was born in 1948 in a village of four hundred people in the hills above Cosenza. My mother Teresa fed seven children on almost nothing, and she never once picked up a measuring cup.

In 1968 Salvatore and I came to South Philadelphia with one suitcase and a jar of peppers. I raised five children in a row house, and for twenty-two years I cooked lunch for three hundred children a day in our parish school kitchen. If three hundred children ate it and nobody complained, your family will eat it too.

Now I am back in Calabria, at my mother's stove. And every week the telephone rings from America. Nonna, how much salt? Nonna, how long in the oven? I never had an answer. I never measured either.

So my granddaughter Sofia sat at my table with a notebook. Every time I cooked, she wrote. Every spoon, every minute, every little thing my mother did that no recipe tells you.

It took us a whole year. This book is that notebook. If you found me through my videos, you already know a few of these tricks. The book has all the rest.

Rosaria Fiore

Calabria · South Philadelphia

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Look inside

Real pages. Big type on purpose.

Large, clear type, so you can read it at the stove without your glasses.

Sunday Gravy, a page from the book — **Page 75 · Sunday Gravy.** The pot that cooks itself while you are at Mass.

Meatballs Cooked in the Sauce, a page from the book — **Page 231 · Meatballs.** Soaked bread, one egg a pound, and never fried.

Roast Potatoes That Crackle, a page from the book — **Page 421 · Roast potatoes.** Ten minutes in the pot, one shake, and they crackle.

Lasagna That Stands Up on the Plate, a page from the book — **Page 147 · Lasagna.** Why it slides apart, and how to make it hold.

Nonna's Twelve Rules of the Kitchen, a page from the book — **Page 29 · The twelve rules.** Learn them once and you stop needing the recipe.

Nonna's Kitchen Rescue, a page from the book — **Page 670 · Kitchen Rescue.** Seventy answers to “why did my…?”

Tap a page to see it bigger

What's inside

19 chapters. Every one fixes something.

The sauces

Sugo

A twenty-minute marinara, and the Sunday gravy that cooks itself while you are at Mass.

Every day

Pasta

How to cook pasta right. Carbonara without scrambled eggs. Cacio e pepe that never clumps.

Sunday

Baked pasta & gnocchi

Lasagna that stands up on the plate, baked ziti, stuffed shells, gnocchi that are not gluey.

Meat

Meatballs & sausage

Ground beef that browns instead of boils. Meatballs that never bounce. Braciole.

Weeknights

Chicken

Thighs with skin like glass, a breast that is never dry, cutlets that stay crisp.

The big pieces

Pork, beef & lamb

Pork chops finished under a lid, a steak in cast iron, the braise that melts.

Fridays

Fish

Calamari that are not rubber, linguine with clams, baccalà the old way.

The garden

Vegetables

Eggplant that does not drink the oil, zucchini that is not watery, mushrooms never boiled.

Three days to payday

Potatoes, eggs & rice

Roast potatoes that crackle, a frittata that is not rubber, risotto without an hour of stirring.

The oven

Bread & pizza

Pan pizza from a wet dough, focaccia, real garlic bread, nothing kneaded for ten minutes.

The cookie tray

Sweets

Pizzelle, rainbow cookies, cannoli, ricotta cheesecake, a tiramisu made safe and simple.

The table

Feasts & holidays

The Seven Fishes, Easter, and Sunday dinner for twelve, planned hour by hour.

The last chapter

Nonna's Kitchen Rescue

Why did my sauce turn sour? Why did my meatballs fall apart? Seventy answers, and how to save dinner instead of throwing it out.

And pasta e fagioli, wedding soup, chicken cacciatore, sausage and peppers, caponata, struffoli, homemade ricotta, limoncello…

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Every recipe has

Not just steps. The knowing.

Exact measures

Cups and spoons, store brands you will find at Walmart or Kroger. No “a little of this.”

Nonna's trick

The one thing my mother did that the recipe on the box never tells you.

Where it goes wrong

What you will see if it is going wrong, and how to save it before it is too late.

The next day

Sunday's pot becomes Monday's lunch and Wednesday's dinner. Nothing goes in the garbage.

From the first pages

Nonna's twelve rules of the kitchen

Salt the meat early, the vegetables late.

Half the gray steaks and soggy peppers in America come from salting at the wrong time.

Never crowd the pan.

Crowded food steams in its own water. Give every piece room and it browns.

III

Water is the enemy of brown.

Dry the meat, dry the eggplant, dry the potatoes. A wet thing cannot get a crust.

Leave it alone.

The crust lets go of the pan when it is ready. Not one minute before.

Buy the ugly, cheap cut.

The butcher on 9th Street taught me this. The pretty meat is the dry meat.

Nothing goes in the garbage.

Stale bread, the cheese rind, the bones. Every one of them is another dinner.

And six more inside the book.

The honest arithmetic

What “I don't know what to cook” really costs.

The tired-night way

Pizza delivered for the family $30–40
A frozen family lasagna $14–18
A jar of good sauce $7–9
Meatballs from the deli case $10–14
Leftovers in the garbage every week

A typical month$200+

Rosaria's kitchen

Flour, water, a hot pan: pizza a few dollars
One pot of Sunday gravy three dinners
Sauce from a can of tomatoes about $2
Stale bread and a pound of beef two dozen meatballs
Four weeks of suppers planned in the book

The whole book, once$39

Your numbers will be different. The point is not: one skipped delivery night pays for the book.

Who this book is for

For anyone who wishes somebody had shown them.

For the one whose nonna cooked like this and never wrote it down.

For the one who has made meatballs for forty years and still wants them softer.

For the one feeding a family on one paycheck who wants dinner to stretch.

For the one who is not Italian at all and simply loves this food.

For the daughter or granddaughter who should have these recipes. A better Christmas present than another sweater.

For the one who never had anybody standing next to them at the stove.

Everything in one book

Nonna Rosaria's Italian Kitchen

173 recipes and the old Italian tricks my mother taught me

173 recipes in 19 chapters, 732 pages
Exact cups and spoons, and the reason behind every step
“Where it goes wrong” so a bad pot can be saved
Kitchen Rescue: 70 answers to “why did my…?”
100 old Italian tricks on a few pages
Four weeks of suppers on a budget
Big, clear type you can read at the stove

$79 $39 Save $40

That is about 22 cents a recipe.

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7DAYS

Seven days, my word on it. Cook three recipes from the book. If your family does not notice the difference, write within 7 days and you get every cent back. I would rather that than have you feel taken.

Seven days, my word on it. If the book is not for you, write within 7 days and you get your money back. I would rather that than have you feel taken.

Questions, answered honestly

Before you buy

How do I get the book?

Right after you pay, it comes to your email. It opens on your phone, tablet or computer, and you can print any page and keep it by the stove. Nothing comes in the mail, and the link stays in your email for good.

Why buy a book when recipes online are free?

Because the free ones are the ones that gave you gray beef and meatballs that bounce. They tell you what to do. They almost never tell you why, or what to do when it goes wrong. Every recipe here fed a big family and three hundred school children, and each one comes with the trick and the fix.

I am not a good cook. Is this too hard for me?

It is written for somebody standing in the kitchen with nobody to ask. Exact cups and spoons, numbered steps, and the reason for each one. And “Where it goes wrong,” so a bad pot can be saved instead of thrown out.

Do I need special ingredients or tools?

No. Everything comes from an ordinary supermarket, and I tell you which brands are worth the money and which are not. A heavy pan, a big pot and a sheet pan do almost all the work.

Is it Calabrian food or Italian-American food?

Both, and I say honestly which is which. The food of my mother's village in Calabria, and the food my children grew up on in South Philadelphia: Sunday gravy, baked ziti, chicken parm, penne alla vodka.

I am not good with computers.

You do not need to be. You pay, and the book is in your email. If anything does not open, reply to your receipt and we will walk you through it.

Can I give it as a gift?

Yes, and with Christmas coming many people do. Enter your daughter's, granddaughter's or mother's email at checkout and the book goes straight to them.

Is this a subscription?

No. One payment, one time. No membership, no monthly charge, no free trial that turns into a bill.

What if I don't like it?

Write within 7 days of your purchase and you get your money back. No questions, no hard feelings.

The old Italian tricks my mother never wrote down. Now they are yours.

You followed the recipe. It still came out wrong.

My mother never measured. So my granddaughter measured me.

Real pages. Big type on purpose.

19 chapters. Every one fixes something.

Sugo

Pasta

Baked pasta & gnocchi

Meatballs & sausage

Chicken

Pork, beef & lamb

Fish

Vegetables

Potatoes, eggs & rice

Bread & pizza

Sweets

Feasts & holidays

Nonna's Kitchen Rescue

Not just steps. The knowing.

Exact measures

Nonna's trick

Where it goes wrong

The next day

Nonna's twelve rules of the kitchen

Salt the meat early, the vegetables late.

Never crowd the pan.

Water is the enemy of brown.

Leave it alone.

Buy the ugly, cheap cut.

Nothing goes in the garbage.

What “I don't know what to cook” really costs.

The tired-night way

Rosaria's kitchen

For anyone who wishes somebody had shown them.

Nonna Rosaria's Italian Kitchen

Before you buy

Sunday, two o'clock. The whole family at your table.

My mother's recipes cost less than one pizza delivery.